Broadband operators in Ireland last week submitted initial bids for subsidy to roll out high speed broadband services in rural areas. The bids, which have been submitted to the Department of Communications, Climate Action, and Environment (DCCAE), form part of the operators’ initial submissions for the National Broadband Plan (NBP) tender. The tender has been designed by the Irish government to support the provision of access to high speed broadband services to 540,000 premises across rural and remote areas of the country.

Under the NBP scheme, the winning bidder or bidders will be contracted for a 25-year period to build a network to provide at least 30 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed broadband services. The initial bids include, in addition to technical proposals such as the technology to be deployed and speed of rollout of the broadband network, the subsidy that would be required from the DCCAE to fund the roll-out over the contract period.

Frontier supported eir, one of the operators, in the development of the financial aspects of the bid.